There was a point when Christian Slater‘s presence in a film was fairly commanding, but his image has been diluted to the point where the best thing we can expect out of a Christian Slater movie is passable entertainment. But this trailer for Stranded, a low-budget horror-thriller set on a space station with Slater as the commanding officer, looks more promising than most. It’s a mashup of recognizable tropes and ideas — a little Solaris, a lot of Alien, a bit of Dead Space, and likely quite a few other things — but the trailer raises hackles and has more than a couple creepy moments.

Roger Christian — yes, the same Roger Christian credited with directing Battlefield Earth — is in the director’s chair, and Brendan Fehr, Amy Matysio, and Michael Therriault also appear. The real star, however, could well be the sense of foreboding, and whatever effects have been brought to bear in order to bring the film to life. Read More »

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We’re well through the first and second tiers of horror remakes, as we’ve seen new versions of Psycho and ’80s slasher series such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th, not to mention remakes of slightly less well-knwon films such as The Hills Have Eyes and Piranha.

Now, with a remake wave that also includes Maniac, we’ve got a new version of Silent Night, Deadly Night. The 1984 original caused a minor furor less for its content (most of the people complaining never saw the original) but for the fact that the story of a serial-killing Santa was advertised during prime time.

I know there’s a war on Christmas and everything (sarcasm), but still, it’s difficult to believe that Silent Night, which remakes/updates the ’84 film, will create the same sort of furor. That said, the trailer for the remake makes it out to be a slasher in the modern exploitation mode with enough creep-out factor and weird intensity to satisfy fans of the genre. And why the hell does that voice at the end sound so much like Willem Dafoe? Read More »

The ubiquitous Michael Fassbender will be joining fellow Irishmen Gabriel Byrne, Colin Farrell, Cillian Murphy and Domhnall Gleeson in Brendan Gleeson‘s directorial debut, a big-screen adaptation of Flann O’Brien‘s classic novel At Swim-Two-Birds. The project has been a long time in the works — Gleeson initially acquired the book rights seven years ago — but it seems to finally be picking up steam thanks to some new financers. Shooting is scheduled to begin next spring.

First published in 1939, At Swim-Two-Birds is considered one of the greatest examples of metafiction ever written. The plot revolves around a university student and writer whose characters rebel and eventually conspire to kill him. Although I’ve never read the novel, that all-star cast seems like reason enough to get excited for the film. [ThePlaylist]

After the jump, Isabelle Huppert joins a mystery project and Roswell FM gets two more stars.